Is it a smartphone or a compact camera? It is BOTH. Available in Singapore in white from 5 September at S$798.
From the camera side, the Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom With LTE looks like a slim compact camera.
In terms of performance, the GALAXY S4 zoom With LTE strives to be as good a smartphone as Samsung’s flagship GALAXY S4 – at the same time it tries to be as good a camera as a dedicated compact camera.
From the other side, it S4 zoom looks like a normal smartphone.
Smartphone-wise, it is 4G-capable and runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2, and a 1.5GHz Dual-core processor.
Camera-wise, it has 16 megapixels, optical image stabilisation (OIS) and 10x optical zoom (from 24-240mm at f/3.1-6.3), complete with SMART scene modes for various photographic situations.
It has a Xenon Flash as well as a 1.9 megapixel front camera.
The removable battery is rated at 2,330mAh.
The white version of the Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom With LTE will be available during COMEX 2013 on 5 September at S$798.
Check out the hands-on below and the press release with tech specs as well.
Hands on
Looking at the GALAXY S4 zoom from one side, it looks like the GALAXY S4 smartphone.
Combining the camera and smartphone
Samsung’s first serious foray into a true “hybrid” smartphone/camera – with relatively equal emphasis on both functionalities – was the Samsung GALAXY Camera in October last year.
Compared to smartphones with a rudimentary camera, the GALAXY Camera was basically a compact camera with 3G connectivity.
It had 21x long optical zoom and 16 megapixels, WiFi/3G and the latest (at the time) Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean operating system and apps.
If you look at it from the other face, it looks like the front of a compact camera.
Both are combined into a single hybrid body – thicker than a smartphone but slimmer than a compact camera.
Handling wise, it was a bit awkward to hold when used as a camera. There is a palm grip but I tended to ignore it and held it like taking photos with a normal smartphone.
A nice touch is the metallic zoom ring around the slightly protruding lens which allows the user to zoom in and out while framing or shooting video.
You can also select camera modes using the ring.
The Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom is a hybrid camera/smartphone.
Image quality was superb, and with the help of the OIS, the image was still sharp at the maximum 10x optical zoom.
One thing I found unusual was that even though the lens is covered by retractable metal covers, there is an additional transparent cover over it.
Initially it might have seemed a good idea to provide extra protection, but a few of us who tried out the S4 zoom preferred to place the device resting on the camera side, perhaps out of habit for normal smartphones.
That would scratch the transparent lens cover over time and affect image quality, since the cover is not retracted when taking photos – and you can’t replace that cover yourself.
So that cover is not only redundant, but detrimental to image quality!
Top view of the Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom With LTE.
Read the press release below for the details and tech specs.
Tags: Android, cameras, COMEX 2013, Galaxy, Jelly Bean, launch, Samsung, Singapore, smartphones